A letter from the community to Jagex

[danhezee]

I got a pm this morning asking me to start a thread so the community can share their concerns when we email jagex back. So feel free to use this thread to collaborate and create a nicely worded letter of concerns you would like jagex to know about.

[Jdrew]

Dear Jagex,

We the community are not satisfied with the way you have done away with voxlap and forced our community to pay for something that we once played for free. You have made 1.0 unplayable for three fourths of the community by boosting the requirements alot more then they had to be, you have made Australians unable to even play because you have decided that players shouldn't host their own servers, and forcing the game out the door. And what did you end up with? A broken game! I have herd from a number of players that a third of the game modes don't work and that there are a ton of bugs such as high ping, rubber banding, and you have even lied about the requirements.

You have changed one of the best games that required team work, knowledge, and maturity. You have catered to new players rather then re pairing the game that the core community loved. Now because of that we have cut off from you, we have formed our own community where we may rein with dan as our king.

Now we are trying to patch up the links between the two communities. We have done what you have asked of us. We have even told our own members to calm down. We have done everything we could jagex, The rest is up to you.

~ Build and shoot member

[TEFLON]

Uh am i the only one that doesn't care?

the prototype will continue to run, just like it has, thats the most important part. The prototype isn't going anywhere..
who cares what jagex wants. I actually prefer a player run community anyway, but then again I'm not into this whole game drama thing..
this game was built on a small scale, non greedy foundation...

once more people get the word about this site, it will return to a near state (player count wise), like it was officially..

just gotta keep at it

[Jdrew]

Uh am i the only one that doesn't care?

the prototype will continue to run, just like it has, thats the most important part. The prototype isn't going anywhere..
who cares what jagex wants. I actually prefer a player run community anyway, but then again I'm not into this whole game drama thing..
this game was built on a small scale, non greedy foundation...

You are the exact reason jagex is agenst build and shoot, both sides must work together.

[TEFLON]

You are the exact reason jagex is agenst build and shoot, both sides must work together.

work together towards what?
they didn't develop 1.0 overnight..They built it around with the "call of duty" fast paced concept, and call of duty sells lots of copies, even though its a mediocre fps

They planned it all out, and the thought process thats behind the planning, is the same one that goes for games that get "sold out"..

I don't see anything to work together for, they have already developed their game. They are only trying this BS to protect their reputation..

They don't give a rats ass about this site, they are only concerned that this site is cutting into their profit margins.

[Oldow]

I do not think any confrontation is wise, Jagex is Jagex and blaming their incompetence makes really no sense.

But the important point here is imho the fact that they try to contact build and shoot. Seems to me that the only general concern of this comunity is to support old AoS. Thats pretty obvious, isn't it.

So if any letter back will happen, the general tone should be imho:
- We respect Jagex and its decisions about the future of a game that is its lawfull property.
- As the matters stand, most people in B&S simply are not the target audience of AoS 1.0, which is a completelly different game than the "prototype", which appeals to us more.
- If we might politely inquire, what is your concern and intention in this discussion, all the facts are obvious, have been stated many times, that the new game is different in its very nature than 0.75, that naturally not everybody is going to like it, that if possible the 0.75 will be supported further by fans.

Now, english is not my first language, sry and also - I am more of a luker, no stable building stone of a comunity (though i love 0.75) so this is simply suggestion, if anyone is writing something back, should really be someone else. But i hope that i made clear that I think that the basic tone should be to dissociate with Jagex, really.

[H@nkthet@nk]

I believe that the core game that jagax left on the cutting room floor was, for lack of better words, the success of this incredible game. Having tried out the new version of the game I will say that I am in no way happy and that no amount of appeasement by jagax will fix this current situation. I will simply not buy a game myself that I must now buy a new pc to play. I will stick with this version of the game now and for the for see able future.

[rakiru]

My opinions on 1.0:
The two main things that strike me about the new game is that it is rushed, and it isn't Ace of Spades.
You can quite clearly see where mat left off and Jagex continued, rushing in new features without properly testing them, letting quantity rule over quality. If it was more refined, I probably wouldn't mind it so much. It still, however, is not Ace of Spades - it is a new game in the same genre, along with BrickForce and the like. I am hoping that you have realised this, with your decision to continue support for 0.x, and that it wasn't based on thoughts like "Oh no, there are more people playing 0.x than 1.0, and they're doing so on another site - we need them to be under our jurisdiction!". The latter is what I'd expect from Jagex, but I'm open to them genuinely trying to turn things around.
While you may say that improvements are coming to the game, I still cannot agree with the practice of using early buyers as beta testers. It would also seem that you are not even focusing on fixing the bugs however, as you are adding a lot of content in the next update too. Overall, the game is quite a disappointment.

My opinions on Jagex and this situation:
This was handled poorly, to say the least. Mostly this was on Jagex's part, but we all know that there were certain community members that were also to blame (you know who you are, I hope). Locking/deleting threads and posts with legitimate criticisms with reasons such as "flaming" told us that you wouldn't accept any form of negative opinion on you or your products. Doing this obviously pissed a lot of us off, and some people decided that if they were going to be banned for flaming, they may as well do that, rather than post their well-thought-out concerns. Sadly, a lot of those people were/are also supporters of Build and Shoot, giving us a bad reputation, but by this point, you were already removing posts that mentioned this site (although you were still fine with signatures). What followed was an all-out offensive on BnS, banning people for the slightest mention of it, removing links to it (and links to sites which in turn linked to it), and editing it out of posts. Instead of focusing on the few that were actually doing such things, you decided this whole community was to blame, even banning the owners who didn't take any part in it (if anything, they asked people not to spam this site everywhere). As I said, it's all been a big mess.

P.S. Rainbow badger strikes again.

[Donatello]

Okay here goes me:
Dear Jagex (Java Gaming Experts)...
First of all, i appreciate your hard work on 1.0, even tho i didn't like it.
1st: Banning.
Let's talk about banning, first you told us that we can put BnS in our signatures on AoS.com, then you ban us!
After that, we tell you the truth, and you ban us with the reason: "Flaming Jagex", we never flamed you Jagex, but after you ban us when we didn't flame you, the whole community will flame you!
Now 2nd: Community.
Why don't you listen to the community?
We wasted our time giving you suggestions, and none of them were in-game.
3rd: Lying.
We asked for the system requirements for 1.0, you said that it will still run on our grandmother's rug.
But then, BAM!, 2GB RAM? that's a lie.
4th: Shutting down 0.75 servers.
You could have just left the servers running and released the new AoS, it's like you're telling us:
Play the awesome AoS 1.0, or play the old boring 0.75.
That would have worked..and made the community happy, but all you want is MONEY!.
5th: AoS 1.0
Even after all what happened, you release a game which doesn't look like the AoS we know at all!
Also, everyone is getting 3 fps!, even players with good computers which can run a lot of heavy games such as CoD, BF3, GR.
And then, you won't let us host our own servers, so most of the players are getting high ping!

Damn Jagex, you have now split the community into half...
I want to thank all the BnS admins for letting us play 0.75 for free.
Of course, let us not forget Ben Akosy, Ken Silverman and Mat^2...thanks for making a wonderful free game.

Jagex, all the hard work Build and Shoot are doing, is free, and your piece of crap game is 10$

This song is from us, Build and Shoot, to you Jagex:
Money, Money, Money....we don't need your Money, Money, Money.
We just wanna make the community dance, forget about the price tag!

Long Live Build and Shoot!

[Articsledder]

My only real complaint is that it's painfully obvious they shoehorned almost 90% of the current game in at the last moment. In there you have leftovers from Mat2, and likely a load of old unused code and temp files that are causing all these lag issues.

[Oldow]

Cosider this guys - while I agree with the criticism, the precise points were raised and ignored multiple times. And this is the important part.
Arguing with Jagex staff, you are arguing with a person that knows you are right, but it would not be in his interest to admit so. And his work is precisely to uphold a pretense of discussion.
Therefore i do not think that going into any arguments is productive. The only relevant question imho is here, what interest is behind Jagex contacting B&S. Because business interests of Jagex is the only thing that Jagex can honestly pursue in any debate. I have not seen one act of personal integrity and honesty from the staff and I do not think that such thing is thinkable in the company.

So if I read the situation right, the appropritate answer would go like - cut the crap, where are the money for you here. Also B&S is not 1.0 fansite is important to stress.

english is not my first language, excuse mistakes.

[danhezee]

We are going to link to this page in our next email to jagex.

[Oldow]

We are going to link to this page in our next email to jagex.

I do not think that is the best idea, i do not see the purpose. What will they see in this topic? Nothing that was not said many times before.

There really should be one person, respected by people here, even chosen by a vote, who will take these matters into his hands and decide what the identity, nature and policy of B&S is going to be. Kinda a face to the whole comunity. Consider - we are all pissed and disgusted by Jagex, but do we want to necessarily comunicate it? Is there a point?
If you have a spokeperson, he should decide if we should distance ourselves from 1.0 or associate with Jagex and find ways to cooperate. if we are going to be officially bitchy, or respectable, how and if we are goint to negotiate our interests.

In my opinion it is good to have a good man speak for your community, even if you do not agree 100%. If the person is cool, it is reasonable to support him even though difference of opinion. It is better than to be represented by loudest.

If Jagex wants to see the reaction of the comunity itself, refer them to the forums themselves. Presenting something as officially unoficial position is tricky.

Im sorry if this seems as hair splitting, but these matters are of interest to me, so I would like if it was done properly.

[Sonarpulse]

Honestly I don't really care what Jagex does at this point, I rather us have our own open-source game regardless of what what they are doing.

[Dzhoel]

Great to see they're finally interested in listening to the community.

All we want back is Classic mode to be a direct port of the prototype we came to love.
Perhaps the ww1 mode should be a direct port of .45 and disable only to default semi's and mounted turrets.
ww2 mode should be a direct port of the .76. Classic skins is a must. No neon crap

TL:DR
FOR THE LOVE THAT IS JESUS CHRIST DO NOT SCREW UP CLASSIC MODE, LISTEN AND TRUST THE COMMUNITY ON WHAT THEY WANT FOR ACE OF SPADES, DO NOT SHOOT THEM DOWN.